if a really nice affiliate manager turns bad

[vinylweatherman]

This is what can happen to spammers when people get so fed up with it that they complain to the casinos concerned, and worse, try to organise a player boycott through publicising the incessant spam received for particular casinos.
When this happens, casinos stand to LOSE business through an out of control spamming affiliate, and if the pressure is enough, the affiliate will have their account locked, and payment refused.
Members here will support what was done in this case, but it is NOT the end, there is the chance to learn the lesson and try to be an honest affiliate with a new program.
Where STOLEN details are suspected, this becomes far more serious than mere spamming, and this might be why this crackdown seemed so harsh. If players find their details given in confidence to a casino have popped up in some spammers mailing list, they lose confidence in that casino's ability to keep personal data secure - this again can cost the casino revenue.
USING a stolen list is JUST AS BAD as stealing it, in the real world it comes under "receiving stolen property". Honourable affiliates would flatly refuse to buy a list unless they could be certain it was compiled from people who have given permission for their contact details to be passed to third parties. Verifying this can be near impossible, so it is best to gather your own list. A good way for doing this would be to have an "opt in to my newsletter" section on your website, and then design the website such that it becomes "visible" (and without any "cheating" either, such as "black hat SEO"). This can be done by linking to other related sites, and asking them to link back to yours.
Honourable affiliates do NOT make a fortune quickly, nor even slowly for the most part. Those that are at the top of their game have built their businesses over many years, and have a reputation to match.